The Network
by Nebula Collective
Summary: It was supposed to be one job, one simple job. Nothing should have gone wrong, and yet somehow, everything did. Victoria is an enigma, both for the heroes and the villains. She walks the line between them, working in the shadows, but after a mission gone awry her anonymity goes out the window, and the network she's protecting is thrown into the spotlight.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

 _Console commands_  
 _'Direct console communication'_  
 _"Thoughts and/or telepathy"_

* * *

Watching idly as the landscape zoomed by through the window, Victoria could only bring herself to think; no amount of money in the world could get her to enjoy train rides.

The scene seemed to exude boredom and she fit right in; she leaned back into her seat, rested her cheek against her palm and allowed her vision to go unfocused. At least there wasn't anyone sitting next to her. Thankfully, her benefactor was kind in that regard. The seat that had been chosen for her put her in the lap of luxury, with sumptuous cushioning, very few people around to crowd her, and even a complementary dining plan.

At first Victoria had been excited by this prospect. "At first," however, had been more than seven hours ago. She was tired, so, _so_ tired, despite having done nothing for half a day. At least, she thought, the ride was almost over. The torturous trip was coming to a close, and she'd finally be allowed back on her feet.

Granted she'd immediately be going to work, but work was better than train-ride hell.

Just as she started to close her eyes, hoping to drift through the last portion of the trip in peaceful unawares, she was interrupted, thoroughly ripped from her musings and grounded back into harsh reality, by a sudden, deafening _ping_ in her earpiece.

Victoria sighed. To work, then.

She adjusted her wide-rimmed glasses on the bridge of her nose, subtly running the pad of her index finger over the top of the rims; to everyone else Victoria appeared to be a very tired student attempting to accommodate for poor vision. What they couldn't see was the text that lit up on her lenses— an entire miniature computer built into her glasses.

 _Extracting coordinates…_

 _Coordinates received._

 _Calculating estimated time of arrival…_

 _Appx. 14:36 EDT. This arrival time is insufficient. Recalculating course._

Victoria's face fell from a neutral mask into a light scowl. She was aware of her benefactor's… eccentricities, to put it lightly, and knew that any kink in the plan would only be remedied in the least convenient way possible; for Victoria, anyways. Everything always made perfect sense to the boss.

With an ungodly screech the train lurched, and Victoria was nearly thrown out of her seat.

" _Of course…"_ she thought to herself. _"Why not shut down every train in the city while we're at it? Scramble the local traffic signals, maybe, nothing's too much for one simple job!"_

While the other passengers were still recovering from the sudden stop, and the conductor was hastily trying to explain and reassure over the PA system, Victoria was already standing, removing her backpack from the luggage compartment, and walking towards the exit of the train car.

She felt around in the pocket of her jeans as she walked until she found the tool she needed, a handful of dark orbs, really just looking like marbles. Without breaking stride she dropped them in front of her and immediately stepped on them, filling the train car with a thick, but harmless, smoke. Maybe it wasn't the most professional method of dealing with obstacles, but what could she say? She was annoyed, and she needed to cover her getaway.

As she reached the door, Victoria adjusted her backpack on her shoulder so that she could unzip the primary pocket. She fumbled around, feeling for the one of the gloves she knew was in there. Once she found it she flattened it between her fingers, checking quickly to make sure it wasn't inside-out and that it was facing the right way. She didn't feel the need to put the glove on just yet; she knew how to activate it without wearing it, and she was in a hurry anyways.

Pointing the index finger of the glove at the seam of the locked door, she felt for a very subtle switch in the palm; the tip of the index finger lit up white, and a beam of hot light shot out towards the train door, thoroughly melting the locking mechanism and causing the door to swing open.

 _Incoming message…_

' _cut west'_

…

' _haul ass'_

Victoria rolled her eyes— what did they think she was doing?— before walking lightly down the steps, pausing at the last one. She tapped her heels together twice and jumped off the final step; before she could hit the ground, her shoes— they had originally looked like black Converse— had transformed into dark boots, the soles widening to form a platform resembling a skateboard with no wheels, that kept her hovering about half a foot off the ground.

With a grace only attained through years of practice Victoria swiveled, turning to face the blinking dot in her vision that acted as a compass, before leaning forward just slightly and zooming off into the distance.

She had a job to finish and a schedule to keep, and she intended to fulfill her contract.

* * *

Victoria arrived two minutes early instead of twenty minutes late.

She'd ditched the hoverboard upon reaching the city limits, opting instead for slower but less conspicuous roller skates. She skated comfortably for several blocks, following the directions programmed into her glasses, until her destination was in sight; the Hall of Justice.

The amphitheater-shaped building stood proudly in the center of a grand pavilion, framed by large reflecting pools in front of it and curated trees around the back; everything about the building was gleaming and pristine. The headquarters of the world's greatest superheroes was expected to be nothing less than spectacular. Victoria supposed that it was, though she couldn't help but wonder, if the Justice League put this much effort into the Hall, which was little more than a pit stop in the grand scheme of things, what did their _real_ base look like?

For the last stretch to the Hall Victoria decided to walk normally; if she wore her skates to the ceremony she'd have to wear them the entire time, and she found the idea frankly tedious. She tapped her heels together three times before crossing the street, her boots shifting from the roller-skate attachment back to their default Converse disguise as she walked.

She knew she wasn't going to be the only one at the ceremony, and she most certainly hadn't expected to be the only one who was early, but she found the exact scale of the crowd to be somewhat alarming. People were enthusiastic about their superheroes, she guessed. At least it made her job easier, she wouldn't have any trouble blending in with a crowd this massive.

Making her way through the throng Victoria smiled, putting on a facade of someone who actually wanted to be there. She looked young, bubbly, ecstatic even, over the idea of coming within a thirty foot radius of the superheroes people just couldn't seem to get enough of; in reality, she was numb to it all. She couldn't bring herself to care much at all outside of factoring their very presence into her risk calculations, and, of course, the job itself.

She was drawn out of her thoughts by a ping in her ear, another message from her benefactor.

 _Extracting coordinates…_

 _Coordinates received._

 _Good work._

Victoria couldn't help the pride that washed over her. She was good at what she did and she knew it, but hearing it from someone as stuck-up and unpredictable as her boss was always a reassurance.

 _Software test commencing in 3…_

 _2…_

 _1…_

The lenses of her glasses lit up suddenly with colorful rectangles, all of which focused around the faces of the people in the crowd. Numbers flashed and data on each individual was collected and displayed, all but blocking her vision from anything useful.

Victoria blinked, and it was all gone.

 _Incoming message…_

' _ignore that'_

' _entirely'_

' _disregard'_

She could only laugh quietly at that. There was a pause in communications, presumably as her boss worked out the bugs in the program from their side of the operation. Victoria noticed that none of the actual heroes had arrived yet, but people on the very far edges of the still-growing crowd were becoming excited, so she assumed that was about to change.

 _Software test commencing in 3…_

 _2…_

 _1…_

The rectangles were back but significantly less obtrusive, and the data that had originally been displayed was no longer a problem. The program ran for about thirty seconds, collecting information on every face that Victoria could clearly see, until her boss was satisfied with the results and the rectangles tapered off.

Just in time too, the esteemed heroes began to arrive on the scene. It would be a shame if they were late to their own event, and they sure were cutting it close.

First was Batman and Robin. Victoria herself couldn't be sure how they arrived— they seemed to have appeared out of thin air— but she wasn't particularly bothered by it. Batman looked over the crowd with a critical eye, tense with caution that was clear to her. Robin wasn't so much like his mentor, waving and smiling at the distant civilians as if he was born to soak up the attention.

Next came Green Arrow and his partner, Speedy. Their dynamic seemed to be the reverse; the elder of the pair was the one with the friendly air about him, while the younger exuded impatience.

There was only a short moment before the next pair of heroes arrived, Aquaman and Aqualad. They carried themselves professionally and regally, backs straight and smiles genuine, if a tad practiced. Victoria supposed she shouldn't expect otherwise from a king.

And finally, just barely on time, came Flash and Kid Flash. Flash, despite being very nearly late to his own party, was very relaxed, smiling and joking with his partners. Kid Flash, however, was very clearly impatient with excitement. He almost looked like he was vibrating. Considering his skillset, Victoria wouldn't be surprised if he was.

They all congregated across the water, a safe distance from the crowds so that all bystanders could be appropriately wrangled before the ceremony.

 _Software initialized…_

 _Targets in position…_

 _Operation commencing._

Victoria barely payed attention to the opening speech, given by some woman affiliated with the public-side of the Hall, instead maintaining near-constant eye contact with the Justice League and their proteges. The rectangles were back, but this time only focused on the heroes and ignoring the bystanders in the crowd.

While Victoria couldn't see it herself, she was aware through her briefing that photographs, thousands of them, were being taken by her glasses and uploaded to a remote server for further analysis.

That was her mission; gather a sufficient amount of pictures of the Justice League, so rarely all in one place in public, so that her boss could incorporate them into… something. She hadn't been briefed on what exactly the photos were being used for, and frankly, she didn't care.

The speech ended. The ceremony began. The heroes walked down a metaphorical red carpet and were accosted by their adoring fans. Victoria grinned and waved and stared, pretending to be one of them. She didn't stop until the heroes disappeared through the doors of the Hall, and Victoria, already having met her quota and not interesting in a tour, dropped out of the now-thinning crowd.

 _Software shutting down…_

 _Commence 'Phase 2'._

* * *

Cadmus had expanded since last time she'd been there, both on the surface and beneath it.

It had taken surprisingly little effort to infiltrate the ground floor of the building, and only slightly more to access what was supposed to be top secret; the fifty-something basement level laboratories.

She'd long since changed into her work uniform, a black bodysuit, built and enhanced by her benefactor, and a reflective helmet that covered her entire head. The operation at the Hall had been a job, yes, but this is where the real work was.

Victoria, or Agent, as she was known by while in uniform, was plugged into a computer terminal twenty-two stories below ground. Technology of unknown function lined every wall in sight, what wasn't chrome glowing an ominous shade of red. The floors and ceilings were tinted red as well, otherwise hard, dark, and lined by metal pipes that lead throughout the facility. Everything was just as Agent remembered from her last visit, except, she thought that everything was a little bit _more_.

It was time for a routine checkup of Cadmus's activities, always the most dangerous jobs she'd taken throughout her career. If she was caught here, there was no getting out.

She watched the screen that lit up on the inside of her helmet, as every file in the facility was dug up, copied, and then exported to the same remote server as the photographs she'd taken earlier. Everything was going according to plan, and hopefully she would be able to get out without a hitch.

Hitches were meant to happen, she supposed, as only a second after she'd thought that an error message popped up in the corner of her screen. A few select files, all about very recent projects from what she could see, were heavily encrypted, and she was unable to copy them.

Kr, HRH, Blockbuster… The names meant little to her, but they were new, and she needed to investigate. Unfortunately this meant going deeper, either to the projects themselves or to a computer with special access, one of the doctors' personal terminals. The former would be less dangerous, but would take significantly more time. The latter wouldn't take nearly as long, but would risk direct confrontation with Cadmus employees.

" _You do not have much time."_ A deep voice rang out in her ear and Agent leapt back from the terminal, arms outstretched and primed to fire. The room was empty aside from her, and there was nowhere for anyone to hide. She scowled.

" _You do not have much time,"_ the voice repeated, and Agent's scowl deepened. _"You must hurry, to sub-level fifty-two. There you will find the answers."_

As if on cue, the building's alarm started going off, red lights flashing and a near deafening drone blaring.

 _"Great, just great,"_ Agent thought to herself, running to the stairwell. Not only had the genomorphs advanced since her last visit, they knew she was here, too. Fantastic.

Upon reaching the stairwell she launched herself over the railing and into the abyss below; she tapped her heels together mid-fall and her hoverboard formed, slowing her descent enough to not be deadly.

Deadly or not another obstacle presented itself at the end of her fall; the stairwell stopped at sub-level forty-two, a full ten stories above where she needed to be. _"Clearly nobody here has any regard for employee safety,"_ Agent thought wryly, as she forced open the way to the rest of the floor.

The hallways this deep were more ominous, monstrous, and all around disgusting. Red flesh-like material covered the walls, bulbous red pods protruding and twitching, as if they had a pulse. Dormant genomorphs floated in some translucent liquid within them, kept at bay by telepathically induced sleep. By some stroke of luck there was no actual staff in sight, only monsters.

Agent raced down the hallway on her hoverboard, braking just before she could slam into the elevator door. The board deactivated as she stepped down and shoved her fingers into the seam of the door, heels braced against the floor as she pulled with every ounce of strength she had; the door was steadily forced open, just as the elevator itself rocketed past, heading downwards.

She jumped after it, hoverboard activating midair once again, and it was only as she was falling that she realized, she was guaranteed to encounter _someone_ now.

The elevator came to a halt and so did she. There were muffled voices, probably whispering from within the elevator, before they faded into silence. Agent was alone, and now that she was alone, she used the laser in her glove to force open the hatch on top of the elevator door.

She made it down and then out just in time; the doors almost closed on her, and the elevator zoomed upwards immediately after she left. There'd be company very soon.

"Another!" Agent whipped around in time to dodge the metal barrel that was flying at her, thrown by a man with grey skin and horns. She activated her hoverboard and flew at the monster— some sort of genomorph? She could only guess— but was frozen in her tracks. The horns were glowing, she was fighting to even move her own arms; telekinesis.

As fast as she'd been frozen Agent was launched down the hallway, powered both by the mind of the genomorph and the thrust of her own hoverboard.

" _You are wasting time, you must get to project K-R!"_ Her eyes widened in realization; the genomorph that had thrown her was the same voice she'd heard thirty floors up, the same one that had warned her of the alarm. But why would he be helping her _and_ fighting her?

"Who's that?"

"Who cares, hurry up!" Two voices and three bodies tore her from her thoughts. She wasn't alone, she wasn't the only one running.

There was a scientist on the ground in front of her, and behind that was a giant metal door, embossed with "Project Kr." Agent could only assume this is what the genomorph had been talking about, this is what he wanted her to see, for _some_ reason.

She didn't have long to think; she was out of range of his telekinesis and able to move on her own, and there were only two options. She could either try and fly back where she'd come from, or follow the voices through the rapidly closing door. The pattering of rapid footsteps coming from the elevator made the decision for her.

Quick as she could she propelled herself forward, through the propped-open door. She nearly crashed into whoever had entered the room before her but managed to right herself in time, and before their pursuers could reach the door she shot a beam of energy from her palm, dislodging whatever had been keeping it open.

The door slammed shut. Agent was trapped.

Trapped with three people she had seen only hours ago, but had hoped to never encounter in close quarters.

Robin, Aqualad, and Kid Flash, three of the most prominent young heroes throughout the world, were staring her down, caught by surprise but still primed to attack. It was then that Agent knew, she was in much deeper than she ever could have anticipated.

* * *

 **Author's Note:**

Hey everyone!

So, that's chapter one. I've been out of the writing game for a while now, honestly, so I'm hoping it's up to scratch. Found an old (bad) draft of this from a few years ago and was inspired to try and write it better? So let me know how I did, any feedback would be appreciated!

Chapter two is on the way soon, I'm almost all the way through it, but after that I can't really guarantee. There's not going to be any sort of schedule with this fic, unfortunately.

Anyways, feedback is appreciated! Thanks for reading!


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note:**

 _Console commands_  
 _'Direct console communication'_  
 _"Thoughts and/or telepathy"_

* * *

Agent raised her hands above her head in surrender. A fight with the heroes she was trapped with would be detrimental to all parties involved; she couldn't risk it, not when her freedom was at growing risk with every passing second.

"Who are you?" Aqualad questioned, sword raised and pointed at her face. Robin took this as his cue to continue working, investigating the room for other options while Kid Flash watched Agent, poised to attack should she make a move. She quickly ran through her options; the truth seemed to be the only thing that would get them all out unscathed. Not the whole truth, of course.

"I'm called Agent." Through her helmet her voice was modulated, distorted to sound more like a machine than a human, and much deeper than her actual voice. "I was hired to steal information from Cadmus, as I've done before. I was interrupted from my mission by the proximity alarm going off; I'd thought I'd done something clumsy, but seeing you all here makes me think otherwise." As she trailed off, a touch of bitterness in her tone, she waved an arm at the three of them nonchalantly as if everything was normal. Faking normalcy, it helped her to stay calm, to keep her brain on track and away from thoughts of capture, death, and general panic.

"A thief, huh? And why should we believe that?" Kid Flash was understandably accusatory in his tone. Agent just scoffed.

"Why would I be telling you any of this if I was Cadmus security? You're already trapped, there's no reason to get your guard down. I'm running, just like you."

Aqualad seemed to believe this, if his lowering his weapon was anything to go by. Kid Flash saw the move and only redoubled his suspicion— how could they trust her?! Everything about the situation pointed to that being a _terrible_ idea— but Agent only took Aqualad's trust as permission to look around, to try and find any hope for escape.

She didn't get very far in searching before her train of thought was completely derailed.

Directly behind where she had been standing was a glass containment pod, hidden in the shadows of the inactive room. Agent had seen this before she'd rushed in, but hadn't paid it much attention, preoccupied with the more imminent situation that was the young heroes. Now that she was able to fully take it in, however, she was absolutely horrified.

Resting in the pod, at peace in his simulated sleep, was a young man who looked no older than Agent herself. He was tall and well proportioned, with light skin and dark hair. What caught her attention most of all, however, was the uniform he was wearing. He was outfitted in an all-white suit that spanned from his neck to his feet, with a red S emblazoned on his chest; Superman's emblem.

"Oh no…" she whispered to herself, but it must have caught the others' attentions; as she rushed to the computer terminal immediately in front of the pod, the three young heroes turned to match her line of sight, and were immediately as stunned as she was.

"Is that..?" Kid Flash said, trailing off. Robin could only shake his head in some mixture of amazement and horror.

Agent plugged her suit into the computer; the previously encrypted files were much easier to access from the direct terminal, and she was able to export them and then pull them up without a hassle. As Kid Flash moved closer to the pod, Robin turned to read over her shoulder.

"Big K, little R," Kid Flash read from the pod door, "the atomic symbol for Krypton!" He turned back to face the rest of them. "Clone?"

"Unfortunately." Agent was already halfway through the file, and Robin appeared to be keeping up with her. "Cadmus's cloning efforts have expanded since last time I was here…"

"Last time?" Aqualad tilted his head. Though he couldn't see through her helmet, Agent looked at him from the corner of her eye.

"About a year and a half ago. I check in regularly. But, back to this." She gestured to the terminal.

"Weapon designation 'Superboy,' a clone force-grown in sixteen weeks, from DNA _acquired_ from Superman." Robin couldn't hide the disgust in his tone as he recalled information from earlier in the file.

"Stolen from Superman," Aqualad surmised.

"No way the big guy knows about this." Agent could only shake her head at their deductions; they were entirely correct, of course, but she was still stuck on the existence of Project Kr as a whole.

She unplugged herself from the terminal but left the documents on the screen so that Robin could continue reading without her. While the trio of heroes learned more about the boy in the pod, Agent opted for a more physical investigation. She flew in circles around the dormant clone, taking in all of the information she could gather in hopes that it would help _somehow_ ; to escape, to evade the authorities, even just to get the poor boy out of there. She was desperate for anything at this point.

Something she hadn't seen before caught her attention, the three genomorphs stationed at the top of Superboy's pod. They were small, G-Gnomes if she remembered correctly, grown with the express purpose of telepathic communication. They were directly sending thoughts, images, and information into Superboy's mind, and, should the situation have called for it, were able to telepathically force him into docility.

The G-Gnomes' eyes were closed and their horns were dark, meaning that they were inactive, sleeping maybe. They weren't aware of the intruders' presence, and they weren't giving Superboy any orders. Agent knew, however, that could change at any moment.

"They're making a slave out of… well… Superman's son." Kid Flash's statement drew her attention away from the pod.

"Genetic similarity doesn't indicate parental relationships," she blurted out before she could stop herself, drawing all three pairs of eyes towards her. She shook her head, now was not the time for these thoughts, before pointing at the G-Gnomes at the top of the pod. "We need to take care of the gnomes, before someone instructs them to take care of us. It's only a matter of time before someone tries to turn this stalemate in their favor." Robin nodded and turned back to the computer terminal, typing rapidly. Aqualad looked at Kid Flash.

"The two of us will contact the Justice League." Aqualad touched a finger to the buckle of his belt, and the insignia began to glow blue. Kid Flash had a finger to his ear; their expressions, both grim, were telling.

"There's no signal," Kid Flash said, before moving his hand from his comm-link. "We're in too deep." Agent didn't even need to try; if her boss had been able to contact her, she was sure she'd be getting an earful.

"Agent, you have been here before," Aqualad began, turning towards her. "Are you aware of any alternative exits?" Agent shook her head, and started to hover around the perimeter of the room, listening to the walls.

"This floor didn't exist last time I was here, so I don't have the schematics. There might, I repeat, _might_ be a side-chamber off of one of these walls, but it would be another dead end, buy us a few minutes at most."

"There's nothing in here for disabling the G-Gnomes," Robin cut in. "If we want them we have to open the pod to get them."

"Open the pod and you risk a brainwashed Super-clone getting out and beating us to high Heaven!" Agent shouted. She shouldn't have shouted, but she was starting to panic. If there was another chamber she wasn't finding it, and fears of the known and the unknown— _especially_ the known— were starting to creep into her mind's eye. She was losing her cool.

From the other side of the pod the heroes were whispering, discussing, leaving her out of whatever plans they were making. She didn't blame them, she was a stranger, and a suspicious one at that. She only hoped they were being smart.

There was a hiss of hot steam, and a metallic clanking sound; Agent couldn't see it, but she knew the door to the pod was being opened.

She cursed under her breath; quick as she could she rushed around the room and braked between the heroes and the now awake clone, her arms outstretched with blasters primed to fire. Superboy charged, launching himself directly into Agent's blaster fire. He was knocked back into his pod but otherwise unscathed, and rebounded to tackle her without hesitation.

He put a fist through her helmet, shattering the glass and the screen behind it. Shrapnel lodged itself in her cheeks, and she was only barely able to raise her arms and block the next few punches. A few seconds of sustained blaster fire to the sternum and the efforts of the three young heroes were enough to pull Superboy off of him, but not enough to keep him from attacking again. He turned to the first person to grab him, Aqualad, and with one punch sent him flying across the chamber.

While Robin and Kid Flash occupied the clone Agent sat up on her elbows and pointed at the G-Gnomes in the now-totaled pod. With three quick shots of her laser she destroyed the glass chambers they were in, hoping to incapacitate them and pacify Superboy. No such luck; the gnomes were out of the picture, but Superboy was still angry as ever, coughing up a green smoke that Robin had forced down his throat.

Aqualad kicked the clone through the computer terminal and Agent grabbed his arms, forcing them up. She dug her hands into his shoulders, letting the small metal hooks in her gloves dig into his suit. She willed an electric shock to course through the both of them, and Robin piled onto it with a taser of his own. Superboy was unaffected; he threw himself backwards, slamming Agent into the remnants of the containment pod over and over again until she was forced to release him.

Once his arms were free he pulled Robin to him by the coils of the taser, knocking the smaller boy off balance and throwing him to the floor. One foot on Robin's chest, Superboy turned and grabbed Agent, holding her off the ground by the throat.

She could feel herself bruising, her windpipe straining against Superboy's enhanced strength; she could barely bring herself to raise her arms as she was losing consciousness, but she managed it, aiming at the foot that was surely crushing Robin's ribcage. She fired once and the shock of the blaster knocked Superboy off balance. His foot was thrown off of Robin's chest and the young hero rolled out of the way to breathe.

Someone— Aqualad maybe?— threw themself into the clone, throwing them all back into the mangled remains of the pod. Superboy released Agent and she fell to the floor, her head slamming harshly against the cold metal.

She struggled against the coming darkness for all of three seconds, before losing herself to unconsciousness.

* * *

" _Time runs short. You must awaken. You must awaken, NOW!"_

Agent awoke with a deep gasp, breathing as if she'd been out of breath for ten years. The pain in her throat and chest didn't point to that conclusion, but it certainly didn't eliminate it, either. She forced herself to breathe, deeply and evenly, as she took in her surroundings.

Worse had come to worst, she realized, as she finally comprehended where she was. Her arms were pinned above her head by metal cuffs, and her legs spread apart and held in place. She was facing forward, suspended on a metal platform behind a sheet of glass; she was in a pod.

She wasn't alone, either, the farthest right of four pods that she could see, all facing the same direction. Robin was to her immediate left, Kid Flash to the left of him, and then Aqualad the furthest away. All appeared to have awoken under the same circumstances, gasping for breath and summarily alarmed. In front of them all, from what she could see, was a single computer terminal, and Superboy standing behind it, staring at them.

"What?! Wh— What do you want!" Kid Flash shouted; his voice was muffled by the glass, but his distress was clear. Superboy only scowled, on edge from the tone. "Quit staring, you're _creeping me out!_ "

"Uh, KF," Robin started, voice hoarse. Kid Flash turned, face glowing with rage and alarm. "How about we not tick off the guy who can fry us with a look?"

Agent took a labored breath, windpipe still injured from the earlier confrontation, and burst into a fit of coughs. All eyes were on her, not something she particularly wanted.

Aqualad and Kid Flash's eyes widened upon seeing her, but Robin didn't look terribly surprised. It was then that Agent realized, her previously shattered helmet had been entirely removed; they could all see her face.

"Wh— you're just a kid?" Kid Flash startled. Agent scowled.

"No more of a kid than you," she snarled. "No more of a kid than _any_ of you, including _him!_ " She gestured sharply with her chin towards the onlooking Superboy; he stiffened at the attention.

A strand of dark hair fell in her eyes, dislodged from the bun she wore when she was working. She tried to blow it away from her face with little success, and with the tight restraints was unable to flip it away. She would just have to deal with it, for however long was necessary.

As Superboy did another onceover of the four prisoners, Agent did the same with her companions. All of their equipment was relatively intact, and the boys who wore masks were still, well, masked. Agent huffed under her breath, a cold laugh. For scientific geniuses, the people at Cadmus weren't very smart.

"Why are you here?" Aqualad broke the cold silence, and Agent turned her head to look at him. He wasn't addressing her as she'd thought, but was instead speaking to Superboy. The clone didn't respond, cold gaze set on the boy that had spoken to him. "We only sought to help you," Aqualad began again, after another moment of tense silence.

"Yeah, we free you, and you turn on us. How's that for gratitu—"

"Kid, please. Be quiet now." Aqualad's words sent Kid Flash into silence, and Agent was grateful. As Robin had said before, it was best not to provoke their captor. "I believe our new friend was not in full control of his actions."

"W-what if I… Hn." Agent's eyes widened slightly; she shouldn't have been surprised by Superboy's voice, really, but she was. "What if I wasn't?"

"He can talk?!" Kid Flash blurted out, and Agent almost wanted to scream. Superboy felt the same way, if his clenched fist was anything to go by.

"Yes," he growled, " _he_ can."

Another tense silence. Agent took this time, and the time Kid Flash used to say something else inane, to get the bearings on her escape. Nothing had been tampered with in her suit save for the helmet, but it seemed as if all functionality in her gloves was malfunctioning.

Broken? Or out of power? She couldn't be sure, but she desperately hoped for the latter.

"The genomorphs taught you, telepathically," Aqualad guessed. It seemed he was intent on keeping Superboy talking.

"They taught me much. I can read, write, I-I know the names of things." This all sounded achingly familiar. At least Agent now knew that the training regimen at Cadmus hadn't advanced much, if at all.

"But have you seen them?" It was Robin's turn to talk now. "Have they ever actually let you see the— the sky? Or, the sun?"

"Images are implanted in my mind, but no. I have not seen them." Agent pursed her lips, trying not to get distracted.

Instead of Superboy's words, she focused on herself, and the electric charge she tried to summon from her gut. She kept it slow, small, and in control; enough to power the lost functions of her suit, nothing more.

"Do you know what you are? _Who_ you are?" Aqualad questioned. Superboy's reply was instantaneous.

"I am the Superboy, a genomorph, a clone made from the DNA of the Superman; created to replace him should he perish, to destroy him should he turn form the Light."

Agent was not surprised. Kid Flash and Robin were visibly alarmed, turning to each other with shocked expressions; if Aqualad was taken aback, he didn't show it, and for that Agent respected him.

"To be like Superman is, a worthy aspiration. But like Superman, you deserve a life of your own, beyond that solar suit, beyond your pod… beyond Cadmus." At the sound of Aqualad's voice, his very rational and inspired words, Agent turned to face him. She wasn't distracted from her attempts to power her suit, but she was intrigued by Aqualad's vision. She knew them to be true, of course, but that didn't stop her from being surprised at his ability to put it so eloquently. Superboy didn't seem to share that view, however, instead lashing out,

"I live, _because_ , of Cadmus! It is my home!"

"Your home is a test tube," Robin cut in. " _We_ can show you the sun."

"Uhh, pretty sure it's after midnight. But we can show you the moon." For once Kid Flash smiled in the direction of the clone; Agent was almost impressed.

"We can show you, introduce you, to Superman." At this Superboy looked positively wonderstruck, and Agent was beginning to believe they'd broken through to him. Until, that is, the door to the laboratory hissed and slid open.

"No, they can't." The voice that rang out, dripping with poison and ill will, was gut-wrenchingly familiar. "They'll be otherwise occupied."

Three bodies entered the room, each with a G-Gnome perched on their shoulder. In the middle was the man who had spoken, a caucasian man with brown hair pulled into a ponytail and glasses, the one who was most familiar to Agent; Doctor Desmond. To Desmond's left was an African-American woman in standard lab attire, and to his right was a man wearing blue body armor and a golden helmet, someone completely knew to Agent.

"Activate the cloning process," Desmond instructed the woman, and she went to fiddle with the computer terminal.

"Pass! Batcave's crowded enough." No one could say Robin wasn't one for attempted humor. He was unfortunately ignored.

"And get the weapon back in its pod!" Desmond cried out, increasingly frustrated. The armored man walked towards Superboy, who didn't move.

"Hey, how come _he_ gets to call Supey an it?" Kid Flash asked, and Agent snarled.

"I don't know, maybe because he's a poor excuse for a human being, and would better serve the world as shit smeared under someone's boot?" She couldn't help the years of bitterness jumping out of her throat. On the bright side, Kid Flash was stunned into silence. The price for that, thought, was Desmond's attention.

"Ahh, 05, how lovely for you to be with us again." His tone dripped with sarcasm, and Agent's scowl deepened at the use of her old moniker. "If only for a short time."

"Help us." Aqualad made one last appeal to Superboy's humanity, for nothing. Maybe not at first, of course, as the clone seemed quite eager to escape the grasp of the armored enforcer. But at Desmond's command the genomorph that was perched on his shoulder moved to take its place on Superboy's, and with the glow of its horns, any trace of Superboy's free will was once again repressed.

"See, you're not a _real_ boy, you're a weapon. And you belong to me!" Agent's tongue tasted of bile. "Well, to Cadmus. Same thing! Now get back to your pod!" Superboy turned and left the room without resistance, the door sliding closed behind him.

With a silent nod shared between the two scientists the cloning chambers were activated, two metal arms with four syringe-enhanced "fingers" unclasping from their resting position, and jabbing themselves into the four captives' chests.

Upon being stabbed by the needles a violent electric current was activated, sending the four of them into pained screaming fits. Agent's own electric resistance provided only a marginal barrier to the pain, but not enough; as she screamed she was unable to continue to power her suit, and unable to do anything to stop the syringes from extracting her blood. She was barely coherent enough to hear Desmond's conversation right in front of her, with the horned genomorph that had gotten them all into this mess in the first place.

Their DNA was to be collected, their memories extracted telepathically, and then they, the "source material," were to be deleted.

" _They'll know about Alexa,"_ she thought through the pain, _"they'll know where they are, how to find them, and Alexa won't see it coming—"_

As quickly as the excruciating pain had begun it stopped, curbed by a break in the circuit— the door had been ripped off its hinges, held by Superboy, returned to save them.

"I told you to get back to your—" Agent grinned as Superboy stepped forward and in one fell swoop shoved all hostile parties to the ground.

"Don't give me orders." He walked towards us, standing right in the center of the four cloning chambers.

Agent flexed her fingers; it seemed that her gloves were back online, thanks to the prolonged shock. At least Desmond was good for something. She worked quickly, activating the laser in her index finger and frying the cuffs holding her wrists in place.

"You here to help us, or fry us?" Kid Flash asked. Superboy just squinted.

"Huh. I don't seem to have heat vision, so I suppose helping is my only option."

Robin and Agent escaped simultaneously; nice to know her laser was about as efficient as a standard lock pick. They both dropped from where they were suspended, tore the syringes from their chests, and shoved open the glass doors of the pods.

"Aagh, finally!" Robin groaned, hopping down to land in front of Superboy. "Lucky Batman _isn't_ here, he'd have my head for taking so long."

"Seriously? That's what you're worried about. The whole League will have our heads after tonight!" Kid Flash shouted. Agent rolled her eyes and hopscotched from her pod to Robin's to his, and forced the chamber open so she could take care of his restraints.

"And how do you think that makes me feel?" She asked, acid in her tone as she worked through the cuffs. She didn't really mean anything by it, she was just tired. Kid Flash just scowled, still not sure how to feel about her.

"You free Aqualad while I figure out the controls on this thing," Robin commanded Superboy, and the clone growled.

"Don't you give me orders either." That didn't stop him from following them, leaping up to shatter the cuffs holding Aqualad in place. Aqualad thanked him, and with the push of a button on Robin's end of things, the metal arms retracted, removing the remaining syringes cleanly.

Once Kid Flash was freed both he and Agent leapt down from the cloning pod. He ran towards the exit with the other three, while Agent stayed behind; she reached into one of the pockets of her belt for her emergency supply, some low-grade explosives. As she usually operated covertly she tried to avoid using them, but traces of her DNA, as well as the young heroes', in the hands of a facility that specialized in cloning, definitely warranted destruction.

"You— you'll never get out of here! I'll have you back in pods before morning," Desmond growled, pulling himself onto his elbows. Agent ran towards the door and gave an exaggerated shrug in his direction.

"And how well has that gone for you in the past?" she asked, before pressing the activator switch and thoroughly destroying the room in a fiery explosion.

* * *

 **Author's Note:**

Hey everyone!

Sorry for the delay in updating; vacation, ironically, got in the _way_. The next chapter is about halfway written, but college stuff is starting up soon so I can't guarantee when things will be out.

Does anyone know anything about the seven, uh, _very strange_ and _very long_ reviews that apparently got automatically got posted..? Those were weird.

Thanks to TheHG-Phonebox and TheBatmanO for the actual reviews; I really appreciated them :D

Anyways, feedback is always appreciated, and thank you everyone for reading!


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